Largely Irrelevant? Bush Soldiers On

WASHINGTON -- George Bush was asked last week whether he had become irrelevant in the decisions of government, a question that has been posed before in previous presidencies.

The suggestion came from a reporter at a White House news conference who must have been out of the country for most of the year -- because the president clearly remains a force to be reckoned with in the twilight of his second term in office.

If the Democrats thought they were going to come charging into power in January and impose their agenda on the Republican minority and the administration, they were sorely mistaken.

Bush has won a number of key victories this year on the conduct of the Iraq war, the sweep of the intelligence surveillance program to keep us safe from another terrorist attack and in the ongoing battle over spending.

So the question must have vexed him during a press briefing in which he criticized the do-nothing Democratic Congress for failing to complete its business in the nine months it has been running Congress.

Ironically, the relevance question came on the day it was learned the White House had reached agreement with Democrats and Republicans in the Senate on an anti-terror surveillance program that contained a major provision Bush has fought to include.

That provision would give legal immunity to telecommunications firms that cooperate with government requests to tap into terrorist e-mails and telephone conversations to their cells in this country.

Bush insisted on giving the telecommunications industry this protection, among other provisions the Democrats opposed. The measure still faces rough sledding, but it is an example of how Bush is exerting his influence behind the scenes on a pivotal national-security issue.

Earlier this year, House Democrats brought a surveillance bill to the House floor aimed at restricting the government's abilities to spy on the activities of terrorists. But under intense Republican opposition and heavy lobbying by the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to yank the bill off the floor in an embarrassing defeat for the new Democratic leadership.

The Washington Post said last week that the Democrats' retreat on their bill "marked the first time since Democrats took control of the chamber that a major bill was withdrawn from consideration before a scheduled vote." That doesn't sound like an irrelevant president to me.

During this year's skirmishes over this issue, Bush killed a Democratic surveillance bill not to his liking and forced Congress to pass a temporary measure, while both sides worked out their disagreements.